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Monday, November 30, 2009

We had an awesome Thanksgiving Weekend! It was so nice and relaxing. Wednesday I was off early to do some last minute errands before going home to start fixing the big Turkey Day meal and do some house cleaning. I was on a mission and didn't stop until it was all done. Then I set to putting my new Ott light together. It's a beautiful floor lamp that sits in our living room and I can do handwork or read under it. TSC is selling out of these beauties, so I got it for less than half price.Thursday Paul was up before 6 putting the turkey in and baking the buns. I woke to the smell of the buns, so I got up and finished putting out the decorations. About 9, Leslie my MIL, and I started finishing up the cooking. Paul went up to a shooting spot and sighted in his rifle. We were ready when my parents and little bro showed up for lunch. After lunch Ed left for his friends house and dad, Paul, and Leslie took naps. Mom and I worked on several sewing projects. She helped me cut out the Crown Royal bags and put borders on a baby quilt. We had pie before my dad and Paul left to go to my parents hunting. After mom left, Leslie and I watched Survivor and the movie The Final Season. Later in the evening I loaded the OBW quilt on the frame, finished putting the mitered borders on the baby quilt, and made the backing for the baby quilt. I was up till almost midnight quilting and it felt awesome!About 6 AM Leslie and I got up and went shopping on Black Friday. The one thing I wanted was gone, but I wasn't crazy enough to get up and stand in line. We found the other deals we wanted, had breakfast, shopped some more and were home by 11:30. We both took naps and after supper we went back to some of the stores and picked up the things we weren't willing to stand in line for during the morning rush. We had hot chocolate at Starbucks and visited my mom at Hobby Lobby. It was so fun shopping with her all day and very relaxing, very stress free!When we got home she watched a movie and I started quilting the OBW quilt. I got about 1/2 done, but wasn't happy with the needles I was using, so decided to stop and wait until I could get some bigger needles. I pulled out the embroidery projects I needed to take to my parents and packed my suitcase. I still felt like sewing, so I went back down and pulled out the Christmas wall hanging I had planned to make in August! I finally figured out the measurements and everything was clicking right along for me to make it, so at about 1:30 AM I finished it up! I have to quilt it, but at least the top is done and I have enough leftovers to make a tablerunner to match. Sat. I worked at The Sewing Center and it was very slow. I guess everyone shopped themselves out on Friday. My friend Jenn and her kids stopped by to see me, which made my day. They are both so super cute. After work I did a bit of looking before joining mom and heading back to my parents place. Paul and my dad hunted all day Fri and Sat. and didn't get any deer. We went to church Sat. night.Sunday I worked on embroidery projects at my parents. Mom and I used to really struggle with the software and machine, but now that we know how to work it, I was able to just click along. I added names to a 3 fabric books I plan to gift for Christmas, made 4 labels for the quilts I'm making as gifts, put the name on a baby quilt I'm making, and embroidered my dad's name on his jacket.Paul got his buck about an hour before the season ended, so we were later getting home than we had hoped, but he was super excited! It was a 7x5 point buck, so he was happy.I'm hoping to finish up the quilting on the OBW tonight. I have accomplished a lot in November and with 33 hours worth of quilting on this long weekend, my November number doesn't look so bad.

Monday, November 23, 2009

The third quilt I finished this week is for Angie and Cory's son Carter. He's 3 years old and a ball of fire. When I saw him this summer he was constantly running around and showed me his baby quilt I made when he was born. Since he's a big boy now, I figured he needed a bigger quilt. When I saw this one I realized it wasn't a whole lot bigger, but it was definately up his ally. I love the panel and I quilted it with 2 layers of warm and natural batting to make it a heavy quilt for playing on the floor. It's the size of a large baby quilt.

My friend Angie and her husband Cory had a little girl Hannah back in August. I had been planning to make this cute barnyard themed quilt for her since before she was born. After she was born I embroidered her name on it and quilted it. I just finished putting the label on it and it's ready to go to her home. It's a real lightweight quilt for carrying around since I used a thermore batting in it. I'm taking it in a couple weeks to give to her parents when we all get together for a fun couples weekend.

This week I finished three baby quilts, including the putting the labels on which I feel is so important on baby quilts that I'm making. I quilted 3 quilts in October and worked on the handsewn binding in Nov. and on Friday hand sewed the labels down. I sent the first one on it's way on Sat. It should arrive to the recipients and their new baby by the end of the week. I absolutely fell in love with this Noah's Ark fabric when it came in, but didn't end up buying it until it was almost sold out as I just didn't have the right baby in mind for it. Soon after I bought it, the perfect little baby came along and I was motivated to finish it. I hope the family I'm giving it to loves it as much as I do.

Friday, November 20, 2009

This weekend I quilted this wall hanging for a lady who just wanted a simple meander on it. I used a Rainbow verigated thread in maroon, gold, and forest green with a green Bottomline. It turned out readly beautiful and I think she'll like it. It's going to a ranch to hang. I fell in love with the panel.I couldn't believe how perfectly the thread matched the fabric.

I finished up the binding on the Gobble Gobble tablerunner yesterday too. It's a quick and easy pattern from Atkinson Designs Let's Do Lunch book. It looks a lot different than the sample in the book as I used a charm pack and she used a striped fabric. It's really quick and easy to put together and doesn't take much fabric either.

Here's a close up of the quilting. I used a brown/tan/black verigated King Tut to quilt it.It goes in my office with the other Gobble Gobble wall hangings. I'll take them all home next week and use them to decorate our house for Thanksgiving as we are hosting.

Yesterday I finished the hand work on my 2nd Gobble Gobble wall hanging. I used the scraps and leftover pieces from the wall hanging/ tablerunner to make this wall hanging. It's 21" square and used up all of the orange fabric on the sashing/borders/binding and backing. This is the wall hanging I whipped together Sat. night at 11PM and quilted about 8PM Sunday night.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

This weekend I accomplished most of my goals and so much more! Friday night I finished quilting the Pink quilt. I got it quilted and put the binding on by 11:30PM. It's the most beautiful quilting I've ever done and the tension was awesome. I even quilted my name into it.Sat. morning I got up at 6 AM and tacked down the binding so I could use it as a sample for our Market Review party. I finished up just in time to get my supplies ready for the demo and go to work. We had a busy Sat. at the store and I got off about 5pm. I demo'd the bias tape maker. At first I wasn't impressed, but the more I used it, it really is awesome. For those of you that iron your binding in half before putting it on, I can see this is the gadget for you! You can buy the tips for 2 1/4" and 2 1/2" strips to be folded in half and ironed! I hit a couple of fabric stores after work and then picked up chinese for supper. It was so good and really hit the spot. I quilted a horse wall hanging for a customer after supper. Then I put binding on the Gobble Gobble wall hanging and tablerunner. Then I put labels on the 3 baby quilts I need to get sent off. Looks like they will be Christmas presents at the rate I'm going. Then I used the scraps from the Gobble Gobble panel to make another wall hanging. It turned out awesome and I had just enough for backing and binding from my piece of leftover fabric. I can't believe how much I got out of the small amount of fabric I bought. When I got the fabric on my shop hop in Aug. I had no idea what I was going to do with it and by adding the charm pack, I stretched it into 2 wall hangings and a tablerunner, including using it on the backs and bindings of all three.Sunday I helped my MIL clean the fish tank really well and we didn't kill any of Paul's fish! I did some other housework and then we went shopping. We got groceries and a few other necessities. I cleaned our car out top to bottom including vaccuming it. It's spick and span now. It was getting cold out so I went inside and made homemade French Onion Soup. It turned out awesome and was so flavorful! I even toasted the bread and put swiss cheese on top. I served it with a salad mix and roasted pepper dressing. While supper was cooking and I was watching Amazing Race I pinned all the rows together for my OBW. That took forever!Finally in the evening I went to my sewing studio and quilted the wall hanging I had made and put the binding on it.Paul got home from hunting and he was exhausted! While we visited I did the hand sewing on the binding of the Gobble Gobble tablerunner. I finished it up yesterday during lunch at work. It's pictured above hanging on my office wall. It's about 32" square. Last night I sewed the rows of the OBW together and pressed them. I now have the 7 units to sew together. It took me over an hour to sew the rows, so it's a slow process, but there is a lot of matching to be done. Today I've been working on the hand sewing on the tablerunner. I have lots of hand work to keep me busy this week!

Friday, November 13, 2009

I'm probably not the only hunter's wife who is looking forward to this weekend, as I'm sure there are plenty. Since I was about 8 years old it's always been hunter's widow weekend - a time for the girls to get away for a fun weekend while the guys went deer hunting on opening weekend. Sometimes mom and I went to craft shows while other times we've gotten together with friends. Mom and I always have a fun time. This year, since her schedule is wacky and she hasn't been home for a couple weeks, I told her to go home this weekend, so we're not spending it together. I have to work all day Sat. and she's needs the time at home to reorganize. Maybe next weekend we'll be able to do something fun as I'm sure Paul won't get all 3 deer this weekend. Yes... you read that right he has tags for a buck and two does this year! I guess there is an over abundance of does.Paul has been building his trailer for the past two weeks. My brother built the metal part for him, but Paul had to wash, prime, and paint the trailer. Then last weekend he started installing the boards on the top. It looks pretty amazing and professional if I do say so myself. It's been a labor of love for him and I know he's going to enjoy having it for his 4-wheeler and especially when he goes ice fishing to haul both the ice house and 4-wheeler. Last night we went shopping for the "hunting food" and a new knife and gloves. He was so fun to be with because you could tell how excited he was... kind of like when I'm getting ready for a quilting retreat. He reminded me he's going to be like this every year for the next 50+ years and I said that's okay as long as you remember that when I go to retreat. He's leaving tonight for my parents place where he'll spend the weekend hunting. Since I have to work this weekend, I'm staying home. I plan to quilt tonight, tomorrow night, and all day Sunday!

Monday, November 09, 2009

It's been a while since I posted, but it's also been a while since I've done much quilting. The last week of October I spent at Walt Disney World in Florida, attending the Disney Training Institute. I, along with 9 other co-workers from RC, flew to Orlando by way of Denver on Tues morning Oct. 27th. We just missed the big snow storm that went through! We took the Disney Magical Express shuttle to the Boardwalk Inn where we were staying for the week. We ate a late lunch/early supper and then a few of us hit the Boardwalk and went walking around to the other resorts. We took the boat and sailed around by Epcot and Hollywood Studios. In the evening we met up with all the other campus representatives to enjoy the fireworks at Epcot Center. It was exciting to get to know the people we work with from the various states.Wednesday morning we met at the conference center where the campuses started their presentations. I was nominated by the Brooklyn Center campus and given this awesome (but extremely heavy) mouseketeer trophey.

Wednesday afternoon we went through Quality Service training put on by Disney. It was every interesting and I learned a lot. We even had a chance to observe the cast members using their training. In the evening I was a guest of the Brooklyn Center campus and we joined the Minnetonka campus for supper at Bahama Breeze.Thursday morning we did the Incredible Race through Epcot Center. It was really fun and a great way to quickly see Epcot, but with the heat and humidity it was almost unbearable. One of our SpeedBumps was through the Finding Nemo exhibit which was fun. Our team didn't win, but we had a great time.We had the afternoon free, so a bunch of us from Central went to the ESPN center for lunch before a few of us headed off to Magic Kingdom. It was really incredible to see the castle for the first time. Marilyn and I rode most of the rides together and while I'm not a big ride person we did at least one ride in each of the areas. My favorite was Splash Mountain and Peter Pan was pretty cool too. Since most of the people had left to get ready for the Halloween Party, the lines weren't long and with a couple fast passes, we didn't have to wait long at any of the rides. It was really fun to see all the kids dressed up for the Halloween Party as we left.

On Friday we were in the conference most of the day. We had after 4PM passes, so Kay, Amy, and I went to Animal Kingdom. We rode the safari ride which was awesome. We saw the Tree of Life and Amy took my picture in front of it. Amy and I rode the Everest Expedition and the Dinosaur rides. We all went to the Bugs Life 3D show which was probably my favorite.We left Sat. morning at 5 AM, but we couldn't leave without seeing the Halloween Pumpkin decorating competition that the Boardwalk stores had. This one was my favorite, even though it won 2nd place.It was an amazing and fun trip and I learned so much. We got in to RC just after 1PM. Paul and I went to Milesville to my parents shortly after and took in the Halloween Party there. It was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted. On Sunday Paul got his new trailer and my brother, SIL, dad, and Paul went bird hunting. Paul got his first pheasant! I ended up sick with a cold and have been fighting it all week. I stayed home three days, but I just can't seem to get rid of it. I have done a bit of piecing, but really no quilting to speak of!100 Blocks 100 Days ~ 221 Blocks/ Day 57

I feel like I accomplished a lot, because I worked on each of my goals and was able to make significant progress on each goal.In addition:I quilted and bound Hannah's quilt, Carter's quilt, and Jacob's quilt. I just have to put labels on this month.I made the Baby Sign Language quilt blocks.I revealed the Super Secret Project and new book the pattern is in.I had an awesome sewing night with Jenn.The Quilt Corral Too closed in Rapid City.I started working at The Sewing Center on Saturdays and teaching classes.I went to Walt Disney World for a week! It was awesome and I have lots of great memories.

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About Me

I live in South Dakota with my husband Paul and 6-year-old daughter Mikaela and our son Mathew Paul, 4 years old. I love to quilt, sew clothes, and share my love of quilting with others. I've been quilting for 20 years, sewing for 30 years, starting in 4-H at age 7. I enjoy participating in Club Sew and having sewing parties with my great friends, Jenn, Emilee, Gaila, Tammy, Nicole H., & Nicole B.. Paul and I enjoy spending time watching Nascar, fishing, hunting, playing with Mikaela & Mathew, camping in our 5th wheel, and being in the country.